I’m a writer and digital editor. Previously, I served as senior digital editor at the Los Angeles Times. I also headed mobile technology and emerging platforms for latimes.com. Formerly, I’ve been on staff at Entrepreneur Magazine, and have written for various national publications. I love art, tech, and science - and especially places where all three of those things clash, mesh, or merge.

Cash For Internet: How And Why One Site Pays For Clicks

Your time is valuable. Remember this. Amongst resources, time is more valuable than money. You can make more money, but you can never make more time.

Time spent on the Internet has risen exponentially as access to the web has become more widespread and as we rely on it for more and more daily activities (shopping, entertainment, news, search and discovery). According to Comscore, from 2010 to 2013, U.S. Internet use rose from 451 billion minutes to 890 billion minutes.

In the case of L.A.-based Swagbucks, they believe your time spent online should become more valuable to you. When you search, watch, or shop through their portal, users can earn “swagbucks” (essentially PayPal cash or retail gift cards).

“We want to make your time more rewarding. The goal is to find out how users spend their time online and make it more valuable,” said Swagbucks CEO, Josef Gorowitz.

The company has announced a new executive chairman — Chuck Davis, who previously served as the CEO of Fandango and who was also previously the CEO of Shopzilla.

“When I joined Shopzilla and Fandango, they weren’t the brands they are today. When I joined those companies, what I saw there was a consumer benefit. They were filling a void in ways for consumers to get something they wanted. I saw the the same thing in Swagbucks,” said Davis. “I tend to come in as a middle lever and lead companies to the next level.”

The company is currently growing rapidly. In 2013, their revenue was just over $53 million — up from the $35 million they reported in 2012.

How It Works “If you search with GoogleGoogle or shop online — instead you can do that with us, on our site, and earn rewards,” said Gorowitz.

Their portal is broken out into 6 channels. The channels are Search, Shop, Watch (for online video), Play (games), Discover (discovery of new brands), and Answer (a section for market research and surveys). When you click on their site, you earn “swagbucks” — which are either paid out as retail gift cards or in PayPal cash.

To participate, you have to go through their website. It would seem that attracting an audience to a single site to shop, search, and watch video might be tough, but according to Gorowitz their operation has been growing through grassroots marketing (i.e. a network of bloggers, word-of-mouth, and online referrals).

The idea began in 2005, when their parent company Prodege was partnering with brands on private label search engines. In late 2007, they discovered that they wanted to offer users a currency for searching through their sites. “Once we offered rewards, we found that engagement skyrocketed,” said Gorowitz.

Originally they were paying users for search. But the platform grew out, as their users asked for more channels.

Their business model works through advertising and content partners. Gorowitz said, “Walmart as an example – Walmart pays us a commission. It allows users to come through our site, and go to Walmart.” Some of their content partners include Hulu (i.e. you can go through the Swagbucks portal and watch Hulu content), HearstHearst, AOLAOL, and others.

How Much Can You Earn? Over the lifetime of their company, Swagbucks has paid out more than $54 million to their users (payment in retail gift cards). In 2013, they paid out $18 million.

On average, a user on Swagbucks is earning $20 per month from the site. According to Gorowitz, very engaged users are earning $100 per month.

Who’s using this service? Their demographics span across the spectrum, but weigh heavily toward women. They attract a lot of stay-home mothers and heads of households.

“Our users like the idea of adding to the family budget and being able to contribute more,” said Gorowitz.

Paid By the Internet? “Everyone likes a deal, and we celebrate that — rewards for things you’re already doing,” said Davis.

As people spend more of their time on the Internet, it’s possible that users will start to expect something in return for their time spent. (Or they will pay more attention to how much time they are spending online.)

Gorowitz said, “Look at the credit card business — there’s now a commodity aspect to it. They eventually added rewards, and it has worked well. Online activity could eventually become rewarded more often or all the time.”

He said about his site, “Consumers definitely aren’t earning more than they spend. It [what they earn] will be incremental to what their spending is like online. And it’s about their time. When they are playing a game, for instance, they’ll feel like their time wasn’t wasted.”

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